The Persistence of Memory
by HestiaForever
Summary: From when she was a child, she grew up hearing stories about the green-eyed, black-haired hero that had done what tens, perhaps hundreds of trained wizards hadn't been able to do and free the wizarding world from the grip of fear... Sitting in her drawing room at Grimmauld Place, Ginny Potter reflects on her life so far. H/G.
**A/N: Hi everyone! This is just a quick one-shot I thought up on the way to school a couple of days ago, and it's been bugging me to write it ever since, so I figured I'd get it out of my head… Enjoy!**

 **There are some minor spoilers in the italicized part, while Ginny contemplates her life so far, so I'd recommend skipping that part if you haven't finished the seven main Harry Potter books. The story still makes sense overall if you don't read it.**

 **I never meant it to be so long, but it just kinda snowballed… Whoops…**

 **Please check out my other fanfiction,** _ **A Strange Encounter**_ **! Pleaseeeee! You'll make my day! For those of you who have already read it, I'm currently working on the next chapter. It should be posted by next week.**

 **Disclaimer: All characters belong to the great J.K. Rowling.**

Ginerva Weasley Potter sat at her kitchen table in Grimmauld Place, trying to crank out an article for The Daily Prophet about the last Appleby Arrows versus Wimbourne Wasps quidditch match.

A cup of pumpkin juice in one hand and a quill in the other, Ginny attempted starting the article time and time again.

 _This weekend's match with fierce rivals…_

 _Fans looking for an interesting game this weekend between the Arrows and the Wasps weren't disappointed…_

 _The turnout of a quidditch game this Saturday…_

She sighed and slammed her quill against the table. _Ugh._ This was impossible.

Why she found writing a stinking quidditch article so hard was a mystery. After all, Ginny had written hundreds of similar articles for the wizarding newspaper ever since retiring from playing professionally for the Holyhead Harpies, a consequence of the birth of her first child…

Actually, that was a lie. She did know why. She just _couldn't concentrate_!

Why, you might ask?

Her husband, Harry Potter (yes, the great Harry Potter who had survived the killing curse twice and defeated Tom Riddle at the mere age of seventeen) was on a particularly difficult auror mission.

It was a stupid reason to be so distracted. After all, Harry had been on tons of missions like these before, and come back not only unharmed, but successful. In fact, he had probably faced bigger threats than this back when he was in school. But still, Ginny couldn't vanquish thoughts of the black-haired, green-eyed love of her life from her head. What if he got captured? What if he got hurt? What if he _died_?

What if, this time, his luck ran out?

In reality, there was nearly no chance he would come home with anything fatal, Ginny knew(After all, Harry was one of the most experienced and talented aurors of his time) but she still couldn't help worrying.

Ugh! _Worrying isn't going to help him or bring him back any sooner,_ Ginny reminded herself. _But it_ is _going to make this article late and your boss is going to be mad at you._

Still, no matter what, she wasn't able to push Harry from her head. If the mission was successful, he would probably be back in the next few hours. _He_ will _be back within the next few hours_ , Ginny told herself.

Sighing, she put her quill away and crumpled her paper up, throwing it into the trash bin. She probably wasn't going to get anything done before she knew for sure that Harry was safe, so it was no use trying to force something that wouldn't come. _I'll just take do something to keep my mind off things until Harry gets home_ , Ginny decided. _Because he will get home. Safe and unscathed._

Her and Harry's three children were spending the day with their grandparents at the Burrow, so that meant Ginny was free to do anything she wanted. Deciding she might as well just catch up on some sleep, as she probably wouldn't get a lot once the kids were home, she trudged up to her and Harry's bedroom from the kitchen.

Once there, she flung herself straight into bed and closed her eyes, but no matter what she did, sleep wouldn't come. Whenever her eyelids shut, she would see visions of Harry dying, or writhing on the ground in pain, or…

Ginny groaned and sat up, propping herself up on her elbows. It was no use. She'd just have to wait until Harry got home.

Trying to fill her thoughts with something _not_ concerning Harry (her oldest child James's latest prank or the quidditch article she was supposed to be writing, maybe), Ginny plodded to the drawing room and collapsed on the couch. Despite her efforts to _not_ think about Harry, thoughts of him soon clouded her mind…

 _From when she was a child, she grew up hearing stories about the green-eyed, black-haired hero that had done what tens, perhaps hundreds of trained wizards hadn't been able to do and free the wizarding world from the grip of fear. Every night, she would beg her poor mother to tell his story over and over again, to the point in which she could probably have recited it, word for word, backwards. From when she was a child, she had wanted nothing more than to meet her hero, befriend him, and perhaps… perhaps a bit more._

 _When her last brother, Ron, left for Hogwarts, Ginny was finally left alone. But at his return, he was full with stories about the adventures he'd had with_ Ginny's _hero. And inside, she had bubbled with jealousy and longing._

 _Finally, her long-awaited first year had come. She had expected it to be one of the best years of her life, but instead… Tom Riddle had possessed her, invaded her mind, until the point of near insanity; until she was lingering on the precipice of death…_

 _But when everyone else had given up, when everyone else had left her for dead, Harry came. Came and saved her from death; entered the Chamber of Secrets, fought a basilisk, and defeated a horcrux for her._

 _That encounter, no, that entire year, had been one of the worst of her life. Despite her Gryffindor courage, despite the fact that she was at Hogwarts (which was supposedly safe) she had been possessed and nearly driven insane by Tom Riddle, the dark wizard that had terrorized Britain for years._

 _But, like always, there was a silver lining to the cloud if you knew how to look for it: Harry Potter, her childhood hero, had swooped in and saved her life while risking his like she had always dreamed he would._

 _Then, in second year, the dementors had came. She knew they were for the students' protection, but she had always hated them. Whenever she came near one, a cold, dark feeling, would fill her. A feeling that no words could do justice to. They were almost like a personification (although dementors weren't really people) of her greatest fears. Of her family, dead, on the floor, of Tom Riddle controlling her once again…_

 _And then, at that quidditch game, when Harry had fallen from his broom, to the ground hundreds of feet below him, a perhaps even more terrible feeling had filled her. Of course, Professor Dumbledore had saved the day, but that night, she still had nightmares about the incident. What if Dumbledore had been too late? What if he had fallen, fallen to the ground, fallen to an almost certain death?_

 _At first, she had been confused as to why she had been so haunted about Harry's near fatal accident._

 _But then, it had become more clear… she had thought her crush on him was merely a childhood fangirl crush, that she had already gotten over it, but apparently not._

 _The next year had been the year of the long-awaited Triwizard Tournament. At first, she, like all the others, had been quite excited about the prospect. But then, Harry's name was pulled out of the Goblet, and her views about the entire tournament had been turned upside down._

 _Everyone knew(or thought they knew) that Harry had absolutely no chance of winning. In fact, his chances of even_ surviving _the tournament weren't that high. After all, he was being pitted against three seventh-years in a tournament that was known to be deadly._

 _But in the end, Harry had defeated the odds and not only survived, but won. One-thousand galleons. Ginny's head had hurt just thinking about the outrageous amount._

 _But in the end, he didn't even keep the money. Harry hadn't told anyone, of course, but his prize money had seemingly disappeared, though Fred and George had suddenly gotten a extraordinary amount of money to start their joke shop from nowhere._

 _Everyone thought she was oblivious, being the younger sister of six older brothers, but in reality, her childhood had only taught her to be observant and strong-spirited, and she could easily put two and two together._

 _When she realized what had really happened to Harry's winnings, she had been shocked. He had given away a thousand galleons?! But slowly, she had realized that was just like Harry._

 _He didn't care about money. He had plenty of it, of course, being the only heir to the massive Potter fortune. But even if he had been a pauper, Harry would have still cared much, much more about others than about money, or even about his own life._

 _Ginny's summer before her fourth year had started alright. Bizarre and strange, sure, seeing as they had spent the summer at Grimmauld Place. But despite the dark and dreary atmosphere at 12 Grimmauld Place, it had been a good summer._

 _Then she had had her first Defense class with the ministry crone, Umbridge, and her impression of the year had turned upside down. How could she teach the students Defense Against the Dark Arts in such a way now that the whole world was in danger from Voldemort once again? All of the classes were vitally important now, but especially DADA._

 _So she had been thrilled when Harry and Hermione founded the Defense Association, or as most called it, Dumbledore's Army._

 _Her exhilaration was partially because she'd learned much more in Dumbledore's Army than in most of the classes she'd ever taken. But it was also because being in DA gave her a sense of purpose. It gave her an aim, a resolve._

 _And of course, there was the fact that Harry was the leader. But still, there was a cloud on blue sky. Namely, Cho Chang._

 _She'd seen the way Harry looked at Cho. Every time she caught him sneaking glances at her, Ginny's had felt a sword of hatred and longing slice through her stomach. How,_ how _could Harry like_ Cho _, out of all people? She'd talked with her before, and she could tell that Cho was mean and a complete jerk._

 _And then Harry had taken Cho to Hogsmeade, and her jealousy had bubbled over. When Ginny'd heard their date had been spoiled, she'd been almost triumphant. Yes, she knew it was terrible and mean, and yes, she knew she was dating Michael Corner and shouldn't have been feeling anything towards Harry, but she couldn't help it. Cho didn't deserve Harry._

 _Near the end of that term, Harry and the twins had been banned from Quidditch, much to all the Gryffindors' chagrin. They had been the team's best Seeker and Beaters for years, and Gryffindor's chance of winning the Cup was reduced to nearly zero without them. Even more, they had been banned by that hideous pink toad_ Umbridge _, and her reasons weren't even justified. But still, there was a bright side. Ginny'd tried out for the team, and she'd_ gotten in _! The looks on her brothers' faces had been hilarious._

 _And then the year had taken a turn for the worse. It had already been bad enough, what with Umbridge the toad and Voldemort back, but then her father had been attacked._

 _He had been saved, thanks to Harry, but the incident had still really drummed in the reality of the situation. Voldemort was really back, and everyone was in danger because of it. Even her very own family and herself._

 _That spring, though, things had gotten a bit better. She'd grown closer to Harry, and secured the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor as a Seeker. She'd even ditched Michael, who'd been getting worse and worse._

 _And then things had taken a slide down again. That year really_ had _been a roller coaster ride._

 _The battle at the Department of Mysteries had happened, resulting in Sirius's death. Ginny had felt his death keenly, after all, she'd spent a whole summer with him. But for Harry, his death had been torture. He had kept his emotions hidden, like he always did, but Ginny could see straight through him._

 _She'd felt terrible for him. He'd lost his parents so young, and now, to lose his only other true family…_

 _Still, the time had passed by, like always, though Ginny got the feeling that Harry sometimes wished it wouldn't. The summer before her fifth year had been spent having to put up with Phlegm(how could Bill ever want to marry_ her _?) and training to try out for Chaser. Being Seeker had been great, of course, but Ginny's heart truly laid in scoring goals, and Harry was a better Seeker than she could ever dream of being._

 _The time to go to Hogwarts had come much more quickly than Ginny felt it should have. Before she knew it, she was sitting the the familiar compartments of the Hogwarts Express once again, speeding away to school. It had been one of the worst rides to school of her life. Zacharias Smith had bugged her for what felt like hours, pressing her for what really happened at the Department of Mysteries, until she'd hexed him. Slughorn had saw, and instead of giving her detention, like Ginny had originally feared, he had made her join his Slug Club, which was, in Ginny's opinion, even worse._

 _At Hogwarts, she had tried out for Chaser, getting the position. But Katie and Ron had been respectively cursed and poisoned, forcing Harry to replace them on the Quidditch team with Dean Thomas and Cormac McLaggen, a big fat jerk who obviously didn't know what he was doing._

 _After several quidditch related… mishaps, the day had come for the final Quidditch match, the one that would decide the outcome of the Cup. When Harry had to miss the match for detention, the entire Gryffindor team had been crushed. But still, Ginny had filled in for him, and they had won the Cup._

 _And then the next couple of hours had been some of the best in her life, despite everything. She would forever remember the moment where Harry had entered the portrait hole and kissed her. She'd almost given up hopes that he would ever return her affections, that he would ever see her more than a friend. But she had been proved wrong._

 _The next several months had been awesome. Ginny's relationship with Harry hadn't been like any of the ones she'd been in so far. Dating Harry had_ felt right. _Every time their hands brushed, every time he smiled at her, every time he kissed her, Ginny felt an irrational burst of joy that she had never felt before._

 _And she knew immediately that this was what love felt like._

 _But then the Battle of the Astronomy Tower had happened, and Dumbledore had died. She hadn't known the headmaster personally, but his death had devastated her. Many had seen the man as their last hope against You-Know-Who._

 _Not her. She had seen Dumbledore as their second to last hope._

 _Who had she thought of as their last hope, you ask?_

 _A particular Harry Potter._

 _Dumbledore's funeral had been, in equal parts, terrible and wonderful. When she'd seen his coffin, the reality of the situation had first sank in. Dumbledore, the only man Voldemort had ever feared, was dead. But when the mermaids had serenaded him from the lake, and when even the centaurs had watched from afar…_

 _But maybe, just maybe, the realization that he was gone, never to come back, wasn't the worst part of Dumbledore's funeral. The worst part was probably Harry breaking up with her._

 _She knew she should have been expecting something like that; she knew that she should have known what was inevitable. But when he had told her, despite her outward composed appearance, a storm had been raging on inside. Her relationship with Harry had been the only one she'd ever been in that had_ felt _right, and when Harry broke it up, it felt like a knife had been plunged into her bosom._

 _But from the look in his eyes, she could tell he still loved her, that the only reason he was breaking up with her was the reason he had stated: he was afraid Tom Riddle might use her again._

 _And right then, she made a resolve that when Harry defeated Voldemort, she would seek him out immediately._

 _And she'd make sure they got back together, whatever happened._

 _That summer had been absolutely terrible. A constant fear constantly hung like a storm cloud over everyone, dimming the mood and making hearts heavy. Even the twins seemed down._

 _Then Harry's seventeenth birthday had come. Ginny had waited, fear bubbling in her stomach, as much of her family and the people she cared about risked their lives trying to get Harry to the Burrow. When Mad-Eye had died, and George's ear had been cursed off, it had been like a bludger to the stomach. It had truly pounded in that they were in a war- that everyone on Earth, pureblood or muggle-born, wizard or muggle, was in danger, whether they were aware of it or not. And her family was tangled up in the middle of everything, being almost family to Harry, and, as the pureblood fanatics called them, blood-traitors._

 _Fleur and Bill's wedding had been a temporary reprieve from- well, from everything. Or at least it had been, until Kingsley's patronus had arrived._

 _The whole family and some of the order had fled to the Burrow, without sustaining any major injuries, thankfully. But she could still remember her mother's fear and anger when they realized Harry, Ron, and Hermione had left._

 _Still, despite her worry, Ginny had felt thankful towards their miraculous escape from the wedding. Perhaps, she had thought, it was a foreshadow of better times to come._

 _She had been wrong._

 _That school year had been one of the worst, possibly even worse than her first year. Just thinking about it… Snape as headmaster had been a nightmare… And then the final battle, when she had seen Fred's body, lying dead on the floor, then Lupin and Tonks, lying together, hands almost touching, reminiscent of a happy life together cut short, of an infant child left behind…_

 _And she knew she would forever hold that scene in her head._

 _No, not her head. Her heart._

 _It would forever remind her of just how terrible war could be. No words could ever do justice to it. War was so many things. Misery, pain, grief… It could not only affect who fought in it, but their loved ones, and generations to come. And, it was completely unnecessary, yet… well… necessary at the same time. War was a part of human nature, Ginny had realized, and it always would be._

 _After the Second Wizarding War, everyone had started a period of healing and recovery._

 _Fred… For weeks afterward, she'd felt like she had a gaping wound over her heart._

 _And Lupin and Tonks… She hadn't been as close to them as some. She'd still cared for them immensely, though, albeit unconsciously…_

 _Even the loss of little Colin Creevey had been painful. The thought that she'd never see him again, snapping a picture at an awkward moment and saying the most random things…_

 _But they had won; won when the odds were towering against them; won when the world had been tottering on the brink of destruction. And so perhaps, just perhaps all those sacrifices were worth it. Because they had made the world a better place._

 _A major factor in her recovery had been Harry. She'd stayed true to her word, seeking him out once she was sure he was rested and healed from the battle. They'd made up immediately. And inside, she'd sworn that she would never let go of him. Ever again._

 _Slowly, as the weeks passed by, the emotional and physical wounds left by the war had started to heal. Teddy had went to live, happily, with Andromeda; Ron and Harry left for Auror training, promising to write a letter every day; Ginny and Hermione began preparing for their last year of Hogwarts(Hermione had insisted on completing her education); George finally went back to the joke shop, though it would never really be complete without Fred._

 _After her graduation, she'd been looking for a job at St. Mungo's as a healer. So she'd been pleasantly surprised when the Holyhead Harpies had invited her to fill in their empty Chaser spot. It had been a childhood dream she'd always had, but had never even thought about fulfilling._

 _Her brothers' reactions had been a mix of pride, happiness, shock, and worry, for obvious reasons. But she'd plowed ahead anyways, and when the Harpies had won the 1998 World Cup, according to popular belief, because of her, it had been one of the proudest days of her life. And the looks on Harry's and her family's faces had made it all worth it. They had been shocked, of course. But even more than that, they had been overjoyed, and proud._

 _The next couple of years had gone on in a similar way; her still playing(rather successfully, if she did say so herself) for the Harpies, Ron and Harry Aurors, Hermione promoted to Head of Magical Law Enforcement at the Ministry, and passing more pro-werewolf, elf, and goblin legislation by the second-_

The sound of the Floo activating jolted Ginny out of her thoughts. She immediately drew out her wand without even thinking about it. She sighed. _The toll of the war and its aftermath will never really go away, I guess._ But as she ran into the next room, hoping against hope that it was Harry, another thought filled her head. _Maybe it wasn't all bad. Who knows if I ever would've married Harry without the war?_

She threw open the door, nearly jumping into the next room, she searched the room for whoever had passed through the Floo-

"Harry! HARRY!" Ginny, standing there in the doorframe of the living room in an old nightgown, felt as if someone had just told her she'd won a thousand galleons. Because there was Harry, standing in front of the fireplace, looking rumpled and somewhat dizzy (probably because of the Floo) but unharmed. Her legs acted on their own, and she flung herself at her husband.

Upon seeing her, Harry's face lit up with happiness, and he, like Ginny, ran at her, laughing. They collided in the middle of the room, arms wrapped around each other, and an irrational burst of happiness exploded through Ginny.

 _If this is what the war made possible, maybe it was worth it after all._

 **A/N- What did you think? I didn't really intend for it to be this long, but oh well…**

 **Loved it? Hated it? What do you think? If you have a moment, could you drop me a quick review, or at least favorite this story? It would make my day!**

 **Also, don't forget to check out my other fanfiction,** _ **A Strange Encounter**_ **!**

 **Have a great day, everyone!**


End file.
